Lochlyn Munro talks becoming ‘Riverdale’s’ Hannibal Lecter

Hunter Ingram More Content Now

Tuesday

Aug 7, 2018 at 10:53 AM

LOS ANGELES — The Cooper house has a lot to reckon with when The CW’s “Riverdale” returns for season three this fall.

In the final two episodes of the sophomore run, Hal (Lochlyn Munro), the mild-mannered husband of Alice (Mädchen Amick) and father to Betty (Lili Reinhart), was revealed to be the real Black Hood killer, the menace who had killed several people over the course of the season in an effort to cleanse the town of sin.

He’s now in a padded cell, but remains a lingering presence for Betty and Alice as they try to find life after the bombshell.

Stepping back to last spring, Munro said he was a little stunned when her received the script for the big reveal in episode 21, teasingly titled “Judgment Night.”

“As far as being part of the town and being with Mädchen, who I love working with, I just thought this was it for me,” Munro said Monday, after appearing with other “Riverdale” parents at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. “As things go on in Riverdale that I was always a part of, I can’t be a part of it now because I’m in a 10-by-10 cell. I just thought it was sad.”

To ease those concerns, Munro said he almost immediately got a call from creator and executive producer Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa assuring him this was not the end of Hal’s story.

In this new season, which returns Oct. 10, Munro said he is still a part of the action, who will be even more essential to the action.

“I was always just sort of there as the dad,” he said. “Now that’s different. But I always go back to the first season in episode five where Betty is helping me fix my car when she comes home from the date. That’s always what I wanted, those father-daughter scenes because I have a daughter.”

Munro only found out he was the Black Hood two days before filming, meaning he was left to create his own motivations for Hal, who fooled his family and his neighbors for decades by hiding his killer instincts driven by hate.

With the tables now turned and the everyday husband and father persona gone, Munro said Hal will get those father-daughter scenes he wants, although now he represents something more ominous for the already darkly inclined Betty.

“I never know what is going to happen episode to episode, but for now, it seems like they are setting Hal and Betty up with a Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling relationship,” he said.

During Monday’s TCA panel, Aquirre-Sacasa revealed the fourth episode of the season will be a flashback hour called “The Midnight Club,” where a secret from the town’s past will be revealed — with the younger actors playing youthful version of their parents.

Digging into that secret will take Betty, along with her sleuthing partner Jughead (Cole Sprouse), back into her father’s orbit.

“There’s something going on in the town that the parents know about but never wanted the kids to uncover,” he said. “Betty relies on Hal to get that information.”

With everything about Hal now laid bare, Munro still holds out hope there is redemption for his alter ego -- even though he’s not sure a murderer deserves that.

“I really hope the scenes I now have with Lili and Betty are both of now trying to redeem each other,” he said. “I’m not saying he can be redeemed. But maybe personally, Betty and I can help each other find the light.”

—Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2327 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com. Hunter is a member of the Television Critics Association.

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